Peaky Blinders: Season 3 Episode 1 Review
Well, this was an interesting episode.
On one hand, I really enjoyed the wedding aspect of the episode. I am SUPREMELY glad that Tommy and Grace are together; I like that they kind of made us wait to figure out who Tommy was marrying. It could have been Grace or I suppose it could have been May (speaking of which, I wish we could have gotten some sort of final scene between them. I liked her character). Anyway, I'm glad Tommy's marrying Grace; they're meant to be together. I also found the wedding scenes in general to be vastly entertaining. More about that in a minute.
On the other hand, I am annoyed by the time jump in this episode. Once again. To me it feels disorienting, especially given the fact that there was plenty of interesting material to make a season three that could have directly followed season two.
And now, I'm left with a lot of unanswered questions: why did it take Grace and Tommy so long to get married? How did Arthur meet his weird wife (seriously, I do not like that woman)? Did Grace's husband really kill himself (I am guessing the answer is no)? Is Tommy still working with Alfie Solomons? When did Tommy buy that nice, pretty house? When did he get that CLASSIC portrait of himself and the horse painted? Like, we jump two years, and all the sudden I don't know what's happening.
HEAVY SIGH.
But, I digress.
Like I said, I really enjoyed the wedding part of the episode. To be honest, those scenes in the church kind of felt like they came out of a grittier version of Downton Abbey, but I liked it. It's nice to see the Shelby family getting a moment in the sun. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVED the way the director chose to contrast the Shelby clan with Grace's family.
The contrast was just HI-LARIOUS.
Like, on one side of the church, you have all these stiff upper-lip, prim and proper folks, and on the other side, the Shelbys are just having a blast. I know which side of the church I would prefer to be on.
I also love that Tommy pulls aside all the PBs and tells them to behave themselves. His worry that they're going to embarrass Grace is kind of adorable. But seriously, when he was like "No cocaine, no sport, no telling fortunes, no racing, no fucking sucking petrol out of their fucking cars, and the main thing is – no fighting," I had to chuckle. And, of course, they broke every rule. You can take the PBs to a wedding, but they never stop being gangsters.
Which, on another note, makes me wonder what Grace told her family about Tommy when they decided to get married (again, I'm irritated by the time jump; I would have so loved seeing those moments). Like, I'm sure she didn't do this, but I'm imagining her saying something like, "well, I've decided to get married again. He's a gangster who fixes horse races and smuggles booze; oh, and he does secret assassinations for the British government on the side. But, he has a heart of gold really, and I already had his baby, so...Plus, did I mention he's a gypsy?" Oh my goodness, what a Thanksgiving dinner conversation THAT would have been.
I would have loved that DRAMA.
By the way, does her family know that her baby is Tommy's? Like, how did she explain that to her nice, respectable relatives? Also, it kind of looked like Grace was living with Tommy before the wedding. Surely that was scandalous, no? I mean, probably not for the Shelbys, but Grace's relatives seem pretty stuck up.
Anyway. All of it is fantastic DRAMA.
Grace on her own is not always a super compelling character; I think the show could have definitely fleshed her out more during earlier seasons. However, she also had some great moments in this episode. A) I love that she tells Polly that she and Tommy were late because they were having sex upstairs (it's also funny when Arthur walks in on them, but that's beside the point); that was BOLD. I enjoy snarky Grace. And b) I love that she tells Tommy that he needs to knock off the grumpy attitude. I think we all know for sure that Grace is the only person who could get away with saying stuff like that to him.
We also have to talk about Arthur.
Arthur, Arthur, Arthur...I don't know what we're going to do with him! I am concerned about him, I really am. First of all, his wife seems a bit too holier than thou, if you know what I mean. I'm all for people getting religion, but I'm not a fan of extremism of any description. So, I don't think I like her, but anyone who can help Arthur feel okay is doing a major service to the family. He's obviously deeply, deeply troubled, and Tommy and John are not helping the situation.
I should also talk about Lizzy I guess, another person I feel bad for. I see that she continued to work for the Shelbys after Tommy totally screwed her over in the previous season. But, really, what choice did she have? I'm guessing one doesn't just quit a job at Shelby Ltd. It looks like the brothers are messing up her love life, which really sucks because Lizzy deserves to be happy. She's had a tough life! Also, as a matter of practicality, they should all be doing everything they can to keep the people around them loyal. Taking Lizzy for granted is not a recipe for success.
On another note, I'm concerned about Michael. I know that a lot of other reviewers of this show were suspicious of him last season; I was not, but now I am. I'm all for Michael making grand plans, as long as they don't involve stabbing Tommy in the back. Don't ever take sides against the family, Michael.
Okay, now that we have discussed all of this, I guess we should get down to the plot. I'm really not a fan of the whole Russian thing that they seem to be setting up. It feels too much like a spy movie, and not a gangster drama. And I am not a fan of spy movies. Also, I tend to get bored with shows that have really involved, complex plots with a lot of betrayals and backstabbing and movie parts. This is because usually those shows spend so much time explaining what's happening that you lose the interesting character development that makes it good TV. Also, from a story-telling perspective, I think one, clearly articulated goal per character is the way too go. When you start to get into minutia and little goals that none of the viewers really care about, it starts to get boring. I'm not saying that PB is there yet, but I'm not sure I like this new tone.
One final observation: I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was TOMMY who gets up in the middle of the night when the baby starts crying. Like, how progressive of him! Although, I gotta say, that baby has an abnormally large head.
Rating: 7/10
On one hand, I really enjoyed the wedding aspect of the episode. I am SUPREMELY glad that Tommy and Grace are together; I like that they kind of made us wait to figure out who Tommy was marrying. It could have been Grace or I suppose it could have been May (speaking of which, I wish we could have gotten some sort of final scene between them. I liked her character). Anyway, I'm glad Tommy's marrying Grace; they're meant to be together. I also found the wedding scenes in general to be vastly entertaining. More about that in a minute.
On the other hand, I am annoyed by the time jump in this episode. Once again. To me it feels disorienting, especially given the fact that there was plenty of interesting material to make a season three that could have directly followed season two.
And now, I'm left with a lot of unanswered questions: why did it take Grace and Tommy so long to get married? How did Arthur meet his weird wife (seriously, I do not like that woman)? Did Grace's husband really kill himself (I am guessing the answer is no)? Is Tommy still working with Alfie Solomons? When did Tommy buy that nice, pretty house? When did he get that CLASSIC portrait of himself and the horse painted? Like, we jump two years, and all the sudden I don't know what's happening.
HEAVY SIGH.
But, I digress.
Like I said, I really enjoyed the wedding part of the episode. To be honest, those scenes in the church kind of felt like they came out of a grittier version of Downton Abbey, but I liked it. It's nice to see the Shelby family getting a moment in the sun. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVED the way the director chose to contrast the Shelby clan with Grace's family.
The contrast was just HI-LARIOUS.
Like, on one side of the church, you have all these stiff upper-lip, prim and proper folks, and on the other side, the Shelbys are just having a blast. I know which side of the church I would prefer to be on.
I also love that Tommy pulls aside all the PBs and tells them to behave themselves. His worry that they're going to embarrass Grace is kind of adorable. But seriously, when he was like "No cocaine, no sport, no telling fortunes, no racing, no fucking sucking petrol out of their fucking cars, and the main thing is – no fighting," I had to chuckle. And, of course, they broke every rule. You can take the PBs to a wedding, but they never stop being gangsters.
Which, on another note, makes me wonder what Grace told her family about Tommy when they decided to get married (again, I'm irritated by the time jump; I would have so loved seeing those moments). Like, I'm sure she didn't do this, but I'm imagining her saying something like, "well, I've decided to get married again. He's a gangster who fixes horse races and smuggles booze; oh, and he does secret assassinations for the British government on the side. But, he has a heart of gold really, and I already had his baby, so...Plus, did I mention he's a gypsy?" Oh my goodness, what a Thanksgiving dinner conversation THAT would have been.
I would have loved that DRAMA.
By the way, does her family know that her baby is Tommy's? Like, how did she explain that to her nice, respectable relatives? Also, it kind of looked like Grace was living with Tommy before the wedding. Surely that was scandalous, no? I mean, probably not for the Shelbys, but Grace's relatives seem pretty stuck up.
Anyway. All of it is fantastic DRAMA.
Grace on her own is not always a super compelling character; I think the show could have definitely fleshed her out more during earlier seasons. However, she also had some great moments in this episode. A) I love that she tells Polly that she and Tommy were late because they were having sex upstairs (it's also funny when Arthur walks in on them, but that's beside the point); that was BOLD. I enjoy snarky Grace. And b) I love that she tells Tommy that he needs to knock off the grumpy attitude. I think we all know for sure that Grace is the only person who could get away with saying stuff like that to him.
We also have to talk about Arthur.
Arthur, Arthur, Arthur...I don't know what we're going to do with him! I am concerned about him, I really am. First of all, his wife seems a bit too holier than thou, if you know what I mean. I'm all for people getting religion, but I'm not a fan of extremism of any description. So, I don't think I like her, but anyone who can help Arthur feel okay is doing a major service to the family. He's obviously deeply, deeply troubled, and Tommy and John are not helping the situation.
I should also talk about Lizzy I guess, another person I feel bad for. I see that she continued to work for the Shelbys after Tommy totally screwed her over in the previous season. But, really, what choice did she have? I'm guessing one doesn't just quit a job at Shelby Ltd. It looks like the brothers are messing up her love life, which really sucks because Lizzy deserves to be happy. She's had a tough life! Also, as a matter of practicality, they should all be doing everything they can to keep the people around them loyal. Taking Lizzy for granted is not a recipe for success.
On another note, I'm concerned about Michael. I know that a lot of other reviewers of this show were suspicious of him last season; I was not, but now I am. I'm all for Michael making grand plans, as long as they don't involve stabbing Tommy in the back. Don't ever take sides against the family, Michael.
Okay, now that we have discussed all of this, I guess we should get down to the plot. I'm really not a fan of the whole Russian thing that they seem to be setting up. It feels too much like a spy movie, and not a gangster drama. And I am not a fan of spy movies. Also, I tend to get bored with shows that have really involved, complex plots with a lot of betrayals and backstabbing and movie parts. This is because usually those shows spend so much time explaining what's happening that you lose the interesting character development that makes it good TV. Also, from a story-telling perspective, I think one, clearly articulated goal per character is the way too go. When you start to get into minutia and little goals that none of the viewers really care about, it starts to get boring. I'm not saying that PB is there yet, but I'm not sure I like this new tone.
One final observation: I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was TOMMY who gets up in the middle of the night when the baby starts crying. Like, how progressive of him! Although, I gotta say, that baby has an abnormally large head.
Rating: 7/10
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